Reiki for PTSD
Any hands for those who have dealt with PTSD? I myself am coming down off of a recent episode, so I thought it would be a good time to blog about the benefits of PTSD and Reiki:) It has only taken about 7 weeks to get through this blog for
immediately as I would start to write my heartbeat would elevate, panic and anxiety would creep in, and I’d want to flee or cry or both. And tho I am being pinged with the extreme sensation of fight or flight due to past experiences, memories flooding like a tidal wave, I’m going to give myself some energy lovin’, inhale/exhale to 10 - repeat, and plow through this blog because I feel it to be important.
What is PTSD?
In the past, way before my own struggles, I thought PTSD to be something that only soldiers returning home from war, police officers, firemen, or other first responders dealt with. This is very true. They do have to ‘deal’ with it. But anyone can have ‘it’ and you don’t have to go to war with a country under dictatorship to experience it. However you, like in the past me, may be in a dictatorship household, been witness to a horrible trauma like a hurricane or tornado, raped, beaten, subjected to a serious accident or injury, etc., and have to “deal” with PTSD.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is considered a mental health condition. It is a condition triggered by a terrifying event. You may have been subjected directly to the event or been a witness. Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, repeating the event over and over in the mind. For example with my own issues, I was flooded with memories as well as the emotions that went along with what was happening at that time of trauma. My anxiety went out of control and I found myself bursting into tears and feeling the urge to scream. Like if I just screamed as loud as I could something would break off, release, and I’d be free from this, this thing. Just so you know… I tried it. It does make me feel a little better to drive down the highway and just scream, but at the same time, it makes my throat sore not to mention I look crazy to the Other’s driving/surrounding me:) After screaming, however, the anxiety and panic just crept back in...
When experiencing PTSD, it can be easy to hide what’s going on. Symptoms can make a person feel like they are absolutely crazy, which is a huge no-no in normal society (although we are being urged all over social media to come clean with our mental issues:). One certainly doesn't want to be diagnosed as crazy. Just know if you have PTSD, you’re not “crazy”… You don’t have to hide. Less than 50% of people who struggle with PTSD seek help. Seek help! It’s okay.
Symptoms of PTSD
Re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks, nightmares, obsessive thoughts (they can hear, see, smell, taste things that seem real.)
Insomnia, nightmares
Intrusive thoughts - thoughts that are unwanted, feel uncontrollable, and often pertain to disturbing or distressing themes.
Concentration problems
Numbness, depression
Feelings of estrangement from Others, feeling of wanting to be alone.
Hypervigilance - always being on alert, always ready to fight or do battle.
Sudden startling.
Irritability, anger, panic.
Shame, guilt (including survivors guilt)
Avoidance of situations, people/objects that remind the person of the event.
High anxiety and panic attacks.
Feeling of helplessness.
Intense fear.
Shakiness.
Fatigue.
Heart palpitations.
Does PTSD Go Away?
PTSD can go away over time. It can also be reignited as it has been with me. There are things that one can do. One avenue is Reiki or energy medicine. As a practitioner, for whatever reason, it is much harder for me to work on myself, than it is to work with Others. Like the carpenter who never works on his own house. I find myself during this time reaching out to other practitioners of energy healing. Someone who has no skin in the game.
How Reiki can help
Not only can a Reiki session help to cut the energetical cord running from you to the person/situation where the trauma lies, but it can also help to induce a relaxation response. Relaxation is hard to come by when having PTSD episodes. Even for me, an energy healer, having someone else perform Reiki during my time of “crazy”:) allows me to just be. The mental pressure to just “snap out of it” dwindles as I allow myself to have a session, to give myself the time to have another help me, and to not feel like I have to work at relaxing but to just be and allow the energy to flow, to heal, to allow frequency to heal cellular memory so that I may move on.
During the fight or flight response that occurs during not only a traumatic experience but the PTSD that can follow, emotions can and do get trapped and stored in the body as cellular memory. (A quick reminder that every single cell in your body is it’s own little person. It remembers every single emotion and experience that you have ever had or been through. EVER!) So when triggered, just like muscle memory or kinda like riding a bike, it’s easy peasy to just get back on. Reiki along with the relaxation of the energy/frequency work, a trauma remembered in the cells can be gently released giving some freedom to the mind, body, and spirit.
Reiki can remind the body that touch can be nurturing and therapeutic. (Not all Reiki practitioners touch the body). Reiki promotes inner peace, spiritual peace. When the spirit is calmed, physical healing can begin.
In Conclusion
Reiki is an extremely powerful energy healing treatment. This universal energy is readily available to ALL of us. It is easy to be trained to act as a conduit, for we are all conduits just most of the time we don’t realize the energy we are bringing in or putting out. Training is really just giving space to recognize what’s going on and a reminder that you are an awesome extension of God and can do anything you give intention to. We tend to think that all is physical. Take note that it isn’t. Energy is what affects the physical. Remember that we are living in a hologram. You are a spirit in a body and not the other way around. You/Me/We can control our energy. It is possible. If you are looking to have a treatment or to learn how to channel Universal energy yourself, don’t hesitate to reach out. Myia and I are both Reiki Master Teachers and can quite easily teach how to move and channel energy. It is important (as I have mentioned in this blog) to know when you need assistance. Knowing when the physical reality is taking over and that a little push is needed for healing and grounding and remembering who you truly are:)
Healing and training can take place distantly or in person. Reach out to us today to schedule a session or to inquire about our individualized Reiki Master program.